The computer and television industries are making large strides in developing technology that combines the functionality of the computer and the television. For instance, the computer is becoming more adept at rendering audio and video data in a manner that simulates the broadcast infrastructure of the television industry. Likewise, the television and computer industries are making improvements in delivering interactive television content that tie web-based and/or other content to television broadcast content. One example of such interactive television includes displaying particular advertiser's web page when their commercials are broadcast. Another example of interactive television includes displaying an interactive game that is in synch with the television broadcast.
In order to synchronize web-based and/or other content with television video content, the broadcaster must typically send triggers in-band with the video. Triggers are synchronization events and references to applications, typically web pages, that perform the actions. Examples of industry standards that support such triggers include the Advanced TeleVision Forum (ATVEF) standard and the Broadcast HTML standard. When using triggers in this fashion, some sort of back channel is typically required in order to send the actual web pages since the in-band channel is too narrow to send much content. Furthermore, in-band triggers require the broadcaster, which generates the web content and triggers, to work hand in hand with the head end side to get those triggers sent. This relationship between the broadcaster and head end has traditionally been problematic because, among other reasons, the television broadcasts have to be modified in order to include the required in-band triggers.